If you’re like me, you missed last night’s bajillionth Republican presidential debate, this one airing on Fox News, because you had a lot of stuff on  your DVR and it was flashing at you and stuff. Or you just didn’t want to watch it at all.
Well, in case you missed it, and are curious, Dallas GOP Chairman Wade Emmert reviewed the debate, and took a – shall we say – very honest approach.
Note: As Jack E. Jett points out in the comments, it’s been moved or something. Never you fear. Google caches everything.
Maybe. It kind of makes sense.
Last night’s World Affairs Council-Dallas/Fort Worth dinner at the Hyatt Regency DFW was like a CEOs’ homecoming fete, with everyone from Rex Tillerson (Exxon Mobil) and mega-Realtor Ebby Halliday to Comerica’s Ralph Babb showing up to see AT&T’s Randall Stephenson accept the WAC’s 28th H. Neil Mallon Award. Former CEO-turned-Senate-candidate Tom Leppert also turned up and drew a shout-out from Stephenson, whose company relocated to Dallas from San Antonio in 2008: “Tom was the first guy who started recruiting me. He came to see me even before I was CEO. … I said, ‘Tom, can we just wait!?’ ”
Texas is making international news today for ending the practice of giving those about to be executed whatever they’d like for their last meal. The end of a tradition like that made me sad. But now Bruce Tomaso over at the DMN explains that the whole “last meal” thing has always been bunk. And that makes me even sadder.
Summer intern Kelsy McCraw attended a Back on My Feet run one morning in July. She thought she’d go out, do one run with them, and then do a quick report. But after that initial run, McCraw, a former soccer player at Washington and Lee University, was hooked. She spent five weeks running with the BoMF group. Below is her report.
Sheretta Bodem is shy–not bashfully shy like a child, but hesitantly shy like somebody who’s never been able to depend on anyone. This tough-skinned 25-year-old is about 5 feet 2 inches tall with a curvy figure that is usually hidden in t-shirts, pants, and sneakers. A baseball hat sits atop her braided black hair, slung so low that it just shades her dark brown eyes, as if to reiterate her don’t-mind-me timidity. She sits across the table from me in a back storage room at Dallas LIFE, as she tells me why she walked into the shelter’s doors last November.
She’s a woman of few words, most of Bodem’s answers to my questions are succinct and to the point, but the tall wall she’s built was how she learned to survive.
Bodem says she was spoiled growing up–she always did and got what she wanted. Her mother was a truck driver, so circumstance may have edited the scope of those desires. Nevertheless, her mostly absent parent gave her little in the form of life direction. When her mom would go on her three-month driving stints, Bodem and her younger brother would stay at their less-than-attentive aunt’s home in Richland.
With no discipline, Bodem dropped out of high school at 17 because, as she explains it, it just didn’t seem that important. So, she settled at her aunt’s house with no job, no schooling, and no desire for either. Bodem describes this time in her life as “nothing,” just doing nothing and no plans to change it. At 21, she had her daughter, and at 23, her son. Bodem ruled out living with either of her children’s fathers. “I didn’t want my children to grow up in that kind of environment,” she says. Her “nothing” life at her aunt’s lingered on for a few years until her aunt began clearly favoring one of her children. Bodem wouldn’t elaborate about what happened other than “some other stuff happened…just bad stuff.” She says she really had no choice but to move out. At this point, she had lost contact with her mother and brother. So, with no other place to turn, she sought out Dallas LIFE.
With Republican Will Hartnett, who represents most of North Dallas (District 14), considering retirement, former County GOP Chairman Jonathon Neerman is making it known he’s going for the seat. Old rule: the earlier you announce for a primary, the less opposition you get. New rule: there is no such thing as a Republican primary without opposition.
Surprisingly, the most devastating critique of Perry’s performance comes from neocon chieftain Bill Kristol. I would have expected Kristol to have supported Perry’s embrace of the most extreme elements of Israel’s government.
But Kristol isn’t buying what the Texas governor is selling:
… no front-runner in a presidential field has ever, we imagine, had as weak a showing as Rick Perry. It was close to a disqualifying two hours for him.
The problem for Perry is that he just can’t handle questions outside of his pre-set talking points. And when he gets unnerved by that, he doesn’t even handle his talking points.
Kristol’s entire article is worth reading. I don’t agree with him about Christie (potential candidates always look like saviors before they actually announce), but his critique of the Republican debates is spot on. The words “wacky” and “crazy” seem almost judicious. They will, of course, be forgotten in 12 months when the presidential campaign is really underway, but for now they are about as cringe-producing as any political events I have ever watched. Perry still has time, but the bloom is definitely off his rose.
Yesterday morning, I woke up giggling around 3 am. Why? According to the fuzzy note I made on my phone, I was dreaming about “lobster cakes.” I hate lobster, so if anyone needs me this weekend, I’ll be busy trying to figure out exactly what that means.
Friday
We Are 1976, this year’s best gift shop, regularly devotes a section of the store to work from local artists. And now that it’s fall, things can officially get underway. Not only is the store having a sale on vinyl toys and collectibles this weekend, they’re hosting a party tonight for the four artists on display in their Fallout Gallery space. You’ll find the work of Leah Duncan, a print artist and illustrator from Austin, Roger Peters, a photographer from Dallas, Kyle Steed, a graphic designer and illustrator from Dallas, and Brandon Thibodeaux, also a photographer from Dallas. There will also be plenty of booze. Eat dinner at Louie’s. Obviously. Bring cash or American Express.
This is from a gallery show in Portsmouth, but apparently they are selling prints soon. I wouldn’t have guessed the subject matter would have turned out so well, either.
Computers are fun. We think they are the future.
A couple days ago, I extolled the greatness of Rob Ryan’s work on Twitter. Turns out, it was fake. The account has been suspended. The Cowboys wrote the following on their Twitter stream: “For everyone asking, we confirmed Rob Ryan does not have a Twitter account. All accounts using his name/likeness are fake.” That makes me sad.
Beebe Be Gone. Now that the schools of the Big 12 are apparently staying together and won’t be becoming the Big Pac WAC Mountain East West South North Patriot Conference USA, Commissioner Dan Beebe has stepped down.
Smoker Non Grata. Baylor Health System unveiled a new policy that will allow smokers who already work for the hospital system to continue to do so, but will put the kibosh on hiring anyone who is a smoker. You get to pee in a cup and everything. Some people think it’s kind of discriminatory and something of a slippery slope.
Smoked Out. Poor Ronnell Nicholson can’t catch a break. He’s been out of work for almost a year, and when he tried to do something about it by attending a job fair, his car caught on fire in the parking lot while he was applying for jobs, further hampering his ability to you know, find a job.
Frozen or Rocks. Lower Greenville Blue Goose Cantina bartender Juan Valdez has served many, many margaritas. How many? Well, either last night or next month (seriously, the article first says next month, then says Sept. 22, which was definitely last night) Valdez was/is set to serve his one millionth margarita. So you either missed a great drink special or you can put it on your calendar.
Happy Weekend. And also, happy National Checkers Day and Dog in Politics Day. And, in advance, happy International Rabbit Day, National Cherries Jubilee Day, and National Comic Book Day.